The United States Electronics Industry in International Trade
Abstract
The United States Electronics Industry in International Trade SAGE Publications, Inc.1965DOI: 10.1177/002795016503400106 The 'product cycle' view of international competitiveness This note analyses the recent experience of the United States electronics industry in terms of a pyroduct cycle ' view of international competitiveness. This view starts from the observed fact that, as a product passes from invention to maturity, the rate of growth of demand will vary ; it will begin slowly, accelerate for a time, and then slow down again when the product becomes mature.(') The proposition put forward here is that these phases of growth tend to be accompanied by changes in the relative importance of the various factors of production-skilled and unskilled labour, capital, and management ability. These This note was prepared by Mr. Seev Hirsch ; it is taken from a doctoral thesis on The Location of Industry and International Competitiveness, presented at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. The research was supported by the Harvard University Programme on Technology and Society under a long-term grant from the International Business Machines Corporation. (1)See, for example, S. Kuznets, Economic Change, New York 1953, page 254 ; J. P. Jordan, Yale, 'The Strategy of Nylon's Growth,